My time here so far has been pretty sweet and very interesting! Sunday was a treat. I was in the 3-5 year old Sunday school which was exciting. It was my first time interacting with the kids beyond the welcoming they gave us when we first arrived. The kids were great, but there were 13 of them, which made it a little challenging. Also, two of the kids in the class have mental disabilities, so that made it even more challenging. But overall they were so sweet. The church service was good, and of course the worship was exciting. They sang songs in both English and Luganda, and there were no song sheets (the people had the words all memorized), so my participation was quite limited. Haha. It was still a great time though.
One of the highlights of Sunday was that we went tree climbing for mangoes. Actually, because of my skirt I didn't actually climb the trees - I just collected the mangoes as they were tossed down. But it was still pretty fun. It was right around then that I spotted some monkeys in nearby trees. I was so excited! They were black and were swinging from tree to tree! The GSF kids were surprised by my excitement. For them, seeing monkeys is like seeing a squirrel back home - they are so common.
The past two days have been very relaxed. Because Mark is still recovering from malaria, he hasn't had a lot of time to orient us. So, he told us to spend the time observing life at GSF. We watched the kids go to school first thing, and the rest of the day just kind of rolled without ever really leaving a dull moment. A mother from a nearby village brought her son in to the clinic. He is malnourished and has some sort of disability because he had tetanus badly when he was just a couple months old. His head was swollen, his hair was sparse and discolored, and he had a bloated belly. He was like 18 months old and was tiny! It was very sad, but we were able to give the mom bottles and formula. I know they were also going to take him to the doctor to test him for some things, so that's good! Hopefully he will start doing better. Also, the mother is pregnant again..!
Something else that happened was that an uncle of a boy that was recently adopted showed up. The boy had been at GSF for over two years. He had a grandmother who was unable to care for him, but that was the only known family. So, the grandmother gave him permission to be adopted to a family in America, and he was adopted back in February. The grandmother died in the meantime. Well, I guess because the grandmother died, the uncle came to find the boy. He was not happy to find out that he had been adopted! He insisted that GSF should have asked him for permission before "selling" the boy. All the GSF representative could ask was, "where were you for the two years? why did you not offer to care for him?" (GSF is all about getting children back in with their families or into a family, so they would've been more than happy to give the boy to a willing relative. But because there was none, adopting him into a family was the next option, rather than having him grow up at GSF). It was so sad to think that the uncle thought of "adoption" as "selling." Selling children is so common in Uganda that it's not a wonder why he thought that. They explained everything to him and I believe he eventually understood the situation. Sad nonetheless though.
In the past 2 days, ten GSF children have been diagnosed with malaria. Thankfully GSF is able to diagnose and treat the children, but it still seemed like so many sick children! One of the first signs of malaria is a high fever. Many of the kids have fevers over 104 degrees when they come to get checked (and I think one girl's was over 105)!
I spend much of my extra time in the baby/toddler house. The children are just hilarious. Also, two of the Ugandan workers in that house are 20 and 21 years old, so I really enjoy spending time with them. They're a lot of fun and care for the children very well! The girls take all of the babies on a walk every day, so sometimes I join them. The other day while we were on a walk, the boy I was walking with just dropped his pants, squatted, and used the bathroom in the middle of the road. Actually this seems pretty common among many of the children! Sometimes during school I see children run out of the class and go pee in the middle of the grass. No shame!
Tomorrow will have a bit more actual work rather than hanging. I will start working with the kids on sponsership stuff in the morning, and we are hopefully going into town (Jinja) tomorrow afternoon. Pretty exciting! I looked over the material for the sponsor stuff today, and it looks like it's going to be so much fun. I'm really looking forward to it!
Ahh I'm sorry this post is getting lengthy - I am trying to summarize as much as possible! I commend you if you've made it this far, but you can skip the next 2 paragraphs because they are to answer some questions from my mom.
The food here is actually very good!! The kitchen workers make porridge for all of the GSF and school children (that's over 320 kids), and so I stop in and get a bowl for myself. Honestly, it's really good. The taste kind of reminds me of oatmeal. Although today I had peanut butter & jelly, I've been eating rice, beans, poscho, cabbage, fruit, porridge, and g-nut sauce. It's all kind of interesting tasting, but I happen to really like it (maybe it's just because I am so hungry by meal time). They also make ginger tea and it's soo good!! I feel like I eat so much here, and wonder how many people actually gain weight while here. I keep figuring it must be healthy/natural food but I honestly have no clue what's in porridge, poscho, or g-nut sauce. So who even knows.
I have yet to have any tramautizing encounters with the little creatures living with me, so that's good. There really are geckos all over though - when I just went to use the bathroom there were 3 of them in the stall with me. Also, my laptop screen is quite full of bug guts from me writing this blog in the dark bedroom (they're attracted to my lit-up laptop screen when the lights are off).
Ok, I think that is all I will write for tonight. I don't think I'll be able to upload pictures from my camera the whole time I'm here - I still haven't found a cord for it. So that's a bummer. Honestly, I don't think I'd be able upload many anyways - the internet is sooo slow! I tried uploading some from my phone for tonight and it just wasn't cooperating. So, next time!
As far as prayers go, you can praise God that me as well as the two other interns are all staying very healthy!! Thank you for your prayers! But please continue to pray for us! I know this may seem silly, but can you also pray that I can memorize all of the children's names? They all come up and say "what's my name!??" Some of them I definitely know, but it's hard to keep them all straight. Especially when they all have their heads shaved (boys and girls) and are all wearing the same uniform. It's also important to them that I know their name (and important to me!), so pray that that would come easily! You can also pray for all of the children with malaria. Pray that they'll heal quickly!
Thank you for your interest in my missions work! The support is so encouraging to me!!
One of the highlights of Sunday was that we went tree climbing for mangoes. Actually, because of my skirt I didn't actually climb the trees - I just collected the mangoes as they were tossed down. But it was still pretty fun. It was right around then that I spotted some monkeys in nearby trees. I was so excited! They were black and were swinging from tree to tree! The GSF kids were surprised by my excitement. For them, seeing monkeys is like seeing a squirrel back home - they are so common.
The past two days have been very relaxed. Because Mark is still recovering from malaria, he hasn't had a lot of time to orient us. So, he told us to spend the time observing life at GSF. We watched the kids go to school first thing, and the rest of the day just kind of rolled without ever really leaving a dull moment. A mother from a nearby village brought her son in to the clinic. He is malnourished and has some sort of disability because he had tetanus badly when he was just a couple months old. His head was swollen, his hair was sparse and discolored, and he had a bloated belly. He was like 18 months old and was tiny! It was very sad, but we were able to give the mom bottles and formula. I know they were also going to take him to the doctor to test him for some things, so that's good! Hopefully he will start doing better. Also, the mother is pregnant again..!
Something else that happened was that an uncle of a boy that was recently adopted showed up. The boy had been at GSF for over two years. He had a grandmother who was unable to care for him, but that was the only known family. So, the grandmother gave him permission to be adopted to a family in America, and he was adopted back in February. The grandmother died in the meantime. Well, I guess because the grandmother died, the uncle came to find the boy. He was not happy to find out that he had been adopted! He insisted that GSF should have asked him for permission before "selling" the boy. All the GSF representative could ask was, "where were you for the two years? why did you not offer to care for him?" (GSF is all about getting children back in with their families or into a family, so they would've been more than happy to give the boy to a willing relative. But because there was none, adopting him into a family was the next option, rather than having him grow up at GSF). It was so sad to think that the uncle thought of "adoption" as "selling." Selling children is so common in Uganda that it's not a wonder why he thought that. They explained everything to him and I believe he eventually understood the situation. Sad nonetheless though.
In the past 2 days, ten GSF children have been diagnosed with malaria. Thankfully GSF is able to diagnose and treat the children, but it still seemed like so many sick children! One of the first signs of malaria is a high fever. Many of the kids have fevers over 104 degrees when they come to get checked (and I think one girl's was over 105)!
I spend much of my extra time in the baby/toddler house. The children are just hilarious. Also, two of the Ugandan workers in that house are 20 and 21 years old, so I really enjoy spending time with them. They're a lot of fun and care for the children very well! The girls take all of the babies on a walk every day, so sometimes I join them. The other day while we were on a walk, the boy I was walking with just dropped his pants, squatted, and used the bathroom in the middle of the road. Actually this seems pretty common among many of the children! Sometimes during school I see children run out of the class and go pee in the middle of the grass. No shame!
Tomorrow will have a bit more actual work rather than hanging. I will start working with the kids on sponsership stuff in the morning, and we are hopefully going into town (Jinja) tomorrow afternoon. Pretty exciting! I looked over the material for the sponsor stuff today, and it looks like it's going to be so much fun. I'm really looking forward to it!
Ahh I'm sorry this post is getting lengthy - I am trying to summarize as much as possible! I commend you if you've made it this far, but you can skip the next 2 paragraphs because they are to answer some questions from my mom.
The food here is actually very good!! The kitchen workers make porridge for all of the GSF and school children (that's over 320 kids), and so I stop in and get a bowl for myself. Honestly, it's really good. The taste kind of reminds me of oatmeal. Although today I had peanut butter & jelly, I've been eating rice, beans, poscho, cabbage, fruit, porridge, and g-nut sauce. It's all kind of interesting tasting, but I happen to really like it (maybe it's just because I am so hungry by meal time). They also make ginger tea and it's soo good!! I feel like I eat so much here, and wonder how many people actually gain weight while here. I keep figuring it must be healthy/natural food but I honestly have no clue what's in porridge, poscho, or g-nut sauce. So who even knows.
I have yet to have any tramautizing encounters with the little creatures living with me, so that's good. There really are geckos all over though - when I just went to use the bathroom there were 3 of them in the stall with me. Also, my laptop screen is quite full of bug guts from me writing this blog in the dark bedroom (they're attracted to my lit-up laptop screen when the lights are off).
Ok, I think that is all I will write for tonight. I don't think I'll be able to upload pictures from my camera the whole time I'm here - I still haven't found a cord for it. So that's a bummer. Honestly, I don't think I'd be able upload many anyways - the internet is sooo slow! I tried uploading some from my phone for tonight and it just wasn't cooperating. So, next time!
As far as prayers go, you can praise God that me as well as the two other interns are all staying very healthy!! Thank you for your prayers! But please continue to pray for us! I know this may seem silly, but can you also pray that I can memorize all of the children's names? They all come up and say "what's my name!??" Some of them I definitely know, but it's hard to keep them all straight. Especially when they all have their heads shaved (boys and girls) and are all wearing the same uniform. It's also important to them that I know their name (and important to me!), so pray that that would come easily! You can also pray for all of the children with malaria. Pray that they'll heal quickly!
Thank you for your interest in my missions work! The support is so encouraging to me!!
Not very many people would declare porridge and mangoes "very good" - I think you were meant for this trip. I'm glad that Sunday School went well - 3-5 is a big age difference and 13 kids is a handful!! Do you have any helpers? Do you think that the curriculum you brought will be useful? Jon and I are praying that you learn the names quickly!! Love and miss you.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about learning the names, my students are always like that at the beginning of the year, although they don''t all look alike, that would be so hard! Praying for you everyday!!
ReplyDelete